WVC 17 - 22 - 13
§17-22-13. Licenses required; application; expiration; exceptions;
revocations; judicial review.
No person shall engage or continue in the business of outdoor
advertising in this state without first obtaining a license for
outdoor advertising from the commissioner; and no person shall
construct, erect, operate, use, maintain, lease or sell any outdoor
advertising sign, display or device in this state without first
obtaining a license from the commissioner. The commissioner shall
charge an annual license fee in the amount of $125, payable in
advance, for licensees obtaining up to twenty permits. Licensees,
including subsidiaries and affiliates, obtaining twenty-one or more
permits shall pay an annual fee of $1,000, payable in advance.
Applications for licenses, or renewal of licenses, shall be made on
forms furnished by the commissioner and shall contain any pertinent
information required by the commissioner and shall be accompanied
by the annual fee. Licenses granted under this section expire on
June 30 of each year and shall not be prorated. Applications for
the renewal of licenses shall be made not less than thirty days
prior to the date of expiration. Nothing in this section shall be
construed to require any person to obtain a license who constructs,
erects, operates, uses or maintains an on-premise sign, display or
device solely on his or her own property at the location of the
advertised business and within limitations established in rules
authorized by section eleven of this article and promulgated in
accordance with state law. The Commissioner of Highways, in his or her discretion, may propose for promulgation an emergency rule as
provided in article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code that
clarifies, explains or implements limitations or restrictions on
the construction, erection, operation, use and maintenance of
outdoor advertising signs, displays and devices. With the prior
written approval of the Commissioner of Highways, a county
commission may enact and enforce outdoor advertising ordinances
which place limitations or restrictions on outdoor advertising
signs, displays or devices which are in addition to or more
restrictive than the limitations or restrictions provided by the
Commissioner of Highways in the emergency rule on this subject.

The commissioner may, after thirty days' notice in writing to
the licensee, make and enter an order revoking any license granted
by him or her upon repayment of a proportionate part of the license
fee, in any case where he or she finds that any material
information required to be given in the application for the license
is knowingly false or misleading or that the licensee has violated
any of the provisions of this article, unless the licensee, before
the expiration of said thirty days, corrects the false or
misleading information and complies with the provisions of this
article. The order shall be accompanied by findings of fact and
conclusions of law upon which the order was made and entered. Any
person adversely affected by an order made and entered by the
commissioner is entitled to judicial review of the order. The
judicial review shall be in the circuit court for the county in which the owner of the sign has his or her principal place of
business in this state, or in the circuit court of Kanawha County
if all parties agree. The judgment of the circuit court is final
unless reversed, vacated or modified on appeal to the Supreme Court
of Appeals of West Virginia. Legal counsel and services for the
commissioner in appeal proceedings in any circuit court and the
Supreme Court of Appeals shall be provided by the Attorney General
or his or her assistants, and in appeal proceedings in any circuit
court by the prosecuting attorney of the county as well, all
without additional compensation. The commissioner may employ
special counsel to represent the commissioner in a particular
proceeding.

Note: WV Code updated with legislation passed through the 2014 1st Special Session
The WV Code Online is an unofficial copy of the annotated WV Code, provided as a convenience. It has NOT been edited for publication, and is not in any way official or authoritative.